More reliable? I have not found reven's guide unreliable. It did once download empty channel data which then imported into the media centre resulting in a missed recording but I changed the script so that could not happen again.

I'd rather this thread not turn into a "which is a more reliable EPG source" discussion, as I may never get the answer I'm after.

But to answer you question, I'm constantly getting channels with "no listings available" listed rather than the actual program listings. I can only assume that this has something to do with the websites the data is being scraped from either down or their formats changing. Sky 1 is one culprit, but this may have something to do with the name change to The Box. I haven't had time to look into this yet.

But Sky 1/The Box is not the only channel I experience the "no listings available' issue.

Have you tried using a different source for the scrapes? Maybe try Telstra rather then Sky. I have heard that there synopsis's are not as good but if you are like me then the synopses are less important then the listing itself.

I am willing to work with you on this. I set my EPG up (using epg.pvr.geek.nz) about 6 months ago and it has worked 100% reliably since then. I too found the instructions in the other thread a bit hard to follow and I agree that a simple step by step set of instructions could benefit many people. (No offence to the posters in the original thread)

A couple of comments. I am using XP MCE and if my memory serves me correctly setting up the epg in VMC requires that you use the older version of BladeRunner Pro. Can anyone confirm this? I use my epg for freeview, but I am sure that if I sent you a copy of my ChannelInfo file, you would be able to edit it for Sky.

Could I suggest that we do this by email and then post a step by step after you are up and running?

RustyGonad said he was going to write me up some instructions when he gets some time, so let's wait for that. He will probably make them public to everyone.

Just as a side note, I upgraded to the latest version of xmlTVNZ last night and the guide is working sweetly again. But I still prefer the idea of downloading something that has been pre compiled rather than having to go through and scrape data from websites myself each day. (by myself I mean by using xmlTVNZ to get my HTPC to go and do the scraping).

Satch: RustyGonad said he was going to write me up some instructions when he gets some time, so let's wait for that. He will probably make them public to everyone.

Just as a side note, I upgraded to the latest version of xmlTVNZ last night and the guide is working sweetly again. But I still prefer the idea of downloading something that has been pre compiled rather than having to go through and scrape data from websites myself each day. (by myself I mean by using xmlTVNZ to get my HTPC to go and do the scraping).

Have sent the files through. Its a very simply process - nothing against Reven's product, but grabbing the prepackaged source is a 100 times faster and more reliable. Takes about 10 seconds a day to run.

i was using reven's app too for a while and it did a great job. i even donated to help keep it going. but since the freeview channels came on i've been using the epg.geek one as xmltvnz didnt scrape freeview data (maybe it does now, but i've had no reason to go back and look :)) the epg.geek one is 100% reliable for me, too, and takes seconds to run with a simple wget and gzip script. you still need bladerunner (or a quickguide derivitave) to get it into MCE though.

hopefully though, in a couple of months, i will be able to ditch that too and move to Vista MCE with DVBS and Guide all working without any extra effort.